Jerry, sorry, no relation to Daddy G. (Is that the Daddy G who played saxophone on those old Gary US Bonds records? -- kidding ;^)

I assume that the House of Prayer you're playing may have been founded in NO, but is now located up in your area. (?) I haven't heard brass instruments in church very often, the notable exception being jazz funerals.

Speaking of unexpected instruments in church, are you familiar with the "Sacred Steel" phenomenon? That's hard-rocking black gospel music with the pedal steel guitar as primary instrument. Needless to say, sounds nothing like the Nashville sound. I think it's common to one particular denomination with congregations in Florida (I think) and also (definitely) New Jersey. Arhoolie Records put out an album featuring several different artists a couple of years back, and one spectacular young player, Robert Randolph from Orange NJ, has broken out into the secular market, developing a big following among "jam band" fans.

Glad to have provoked a little more discussion of Tom Rush. I discovered a web site featuring him a year or so ago, and got the impression he was still in the Boston area because all the gigs mentioned were located there. Interesting that he's also established in a new home out in the mountain west.

I'm not sure just what I found so appealing about Tom Rush "back in the day," but it must have had something to do with his eclecticism in the midst of the rigid purism of that era. It's not as if he were the best white blues singer of his time, or even his town -- Geoff Muldaur was laying down some incredible vocals with the Kweskin Jug Band right there in the same time and place -- but Tom Rush had a helluva sense of style, singing "Too Much Monkey Business" with his acoustic box, right in between Cisco Houston and Robert Johnson tunes.